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Roy Keane Reveals Regret At Not Moving Away From Manchester Earlier

Eoin Harrington
By Eoin Harrington
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Roy Keane's Manchester United departure is deep in the team's history at this stage.

The Irishman left under a cloud in the winter of 2005, after an explosive interview with the club's in-house TV station MUTV, in which he put several of his teammates on blast. The interview was in fact so explosive that MUTV refused to broadcast it.

Keane's relationship with then-manager Alex Ferguson took quite the knock due to the manner of the captain's departure, though Keane remains a special part of Manchester United's history.

A seven-time Premier League winner from midfield, Keane was captain for four - including the immortal treble-winning season of 1998-99.

His exploits in the Manchester United midfield have cemented his legacy as one of the Premier League's greatest ever players - but, speaking on the Overlap's Stick to Football podcast this week, Keane revealed he had regrets about not experiencing life away from the UK during his playing career.

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Roy Keane on leaving Manchester United

To mark the release of his eponymous autobiographical documentary on Netflix on Wednesday, David Beckham was a special guest on this week's episode of Stick to Football.

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Beckham was one of the iconic 'Class of '92' at Old Trafford, a group of youngsters who came up through the ranks together and formed the crux of Alex Ferguson's most successful team at Manchester United.

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Beckham's fame went on to far exceed that of his teammates, as he enjoyed spells with clubs overseas such as Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain, and AC Milan.

For much of his time at the club, Beckham's captain was Roy Keane, and Keane revealed on Stick to Football that he somewhat regretted his decision not to follow a similar path to Beckham's.

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Does Keane have regrets about not following in Beckham's footsteps

Speaking on the fact that Beckham and several other players, such as Paul Ince, left United in the midst of their prime, Keane questioned whether such decisions had always been "best" for the club:

I don't know if it was the best for Man United.

I think it ended up being brilliant for you, living in a new country and trying something else. I certainly don't think it was good for the dressing room.

I'd say the same when Incey left and these lads...when players go, you do think, 'there was no logical reason for a player to leave at that time.'

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Keane then went on to acknowledge the fact that he himself had come close to joining both Bayern Munich and Juventus during his 12 years with Manchester United, and said that he felt "jealous" now seeing the success of ex-Premier League stars in continental leagues:

[I was] very close. I wish I bloody had! I wish I'd gone abroad. I'd agreed a deal, my contract was up a couple of times, when I'd done my cruciate and come back. I had opportunities to go on a free.

Part of me is jealous now when I see other lads going abroad, because it's a great experience for your family. But, again, I was happy at United and contented.

If I knew the way it would have ended...when I look back now, loyalty and all that type of talk with Ferguson, I definitely should have gone abroad and experienced a different league, that's all that is.

The image of Roy Keane bossing the Juventus midfield alongside Zinedine Zidane in 1999 is quite the thought, and it was very nearly reality.

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Ultimately, Keane would see out his playing career in Britain. Upon departing United in 2005, he signed a short-term contract with Celtic, before retiring in the summer of 2006, left to wonder what could have been on continental shores.

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